


Deflected Sunlight

by Garchomp445



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22233118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: Mysterious attacks on Garreg Mach university have been escalating, and the only ones who seem to be taking it seriously is the Golden Deer house's superhero fan club. Hilda Valentine Goneril also isn't taking it seriously, but she may be forced to apply some actual effort if it gets any worse.Written for Marihilda week!Day one: ScarsDay two: JewelryDay three: FlowersDay four: Modern auDay five: BeastDay six: TearsDay seven: freeday
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund/Hilda Valentine Goneril
Kudos: 26





	1. Dragon?!

**Author's Note:**

> ooh it's going to be fun to write fanfiction while moving and starting school i can't wait. did you know that some people actually write these days *before* the actual event begins? i'm not one of them

The tremendous, metallic dragon lunged through the crowded city streets. Cars crumbled beneath its mighty tread. Hilda stood atop a statue in the middle of the park. All around her, Claude’s golden threads formed a massive web. He balanced next to her on two of his threads.

Hilda stretched out her arms and her skin turned transparent. The sunlight caught in the magnificent crystals. It made her heat up, but it wasn’t quite enough yet. Claude laughed nervously,

“Hilda? Any time is good! The dragon’s nearly here!” 

“Yeah! I know! I’m absorbing all the sunlight I can!”

“Oh, and Marianne? How’s it going?”

Hilda deeply regretted not being able to look at Marianne. She was probably praying somewhere on the ground.

With a tremendous crack, the dragon crashed into Claude’s web and snapped the first seven wires. Claude shouted, “Any time! Hilda!”

Marianne murmured something. Claude jumped down and asked her what was going on.

The dragon didn’t have any obvious weak points. There were some vents just above its tail, but Hilda would rather not take a risk she didn’t have to. Its eyes had several layers of lenses, its neck had multiple intersecting plates, and even its wings had enough plating to ward off a cannon shot. Good thing Hilda was stronger than a cannon. She waited for it to get distracted by chewing some wires apart. Hilda pointed at the dragon, and turned the absorbed sunlight into a laser. In an instant, the metal in its armour melted, then boiled, then released as gas. It screamed and tried to jump out of the way, but Claude threw out lines to catch it. Hilda cackled,

“Yeah! Another one down!”

She burned a hole clean through the dragon’s chest. It opened its mouth, and shot a black blob at Hilda. It completely ruined her outfit, drenching her from head to toe in paint.

“Ew! Gross.” Hilda pointed at the dragon, and nothing happened, “Oh shoot. Claude, do you have a plan b?”

Claude sighed, “These dragons are definitely purpose-built to defeat us, right? Why else would your main weapon be paint?”

“Maybe they’re just very dedicated vandals!” Hilda smiled, but she got some of the gunk on her teeth and cringed. The dragon was still stuck in Claude’s web, but it was freeing itself rapidly.

“Anyway! Plan b, or should we run away?”

“Can you wash that off? There’s probably a hose around here.”

“No way! It’d probably bruise my delicate skin.”

Claude’s eye twitched, “You’re made out of stone!”

“Also, I blasted a hole clean through it! How’s it still moving?!”

“Beats me.”

Marianne stood up, her eyes closed. She stated, “I think I can reach out to it. We just need to get closer.”

“Okay. I have a plan.” Claude threw six wires over the dragon, taught with the building on the other side of the square. “Marianne, you approach on foot. Hilda, you and I should distract it from above. It’s going to break those wires around it soon, hopefully it’ll try to attack you and I. Also, could we try to contact Lorenz or Lysithea?”

Marianne shook her head, “They’re both still in class.”

“Aw, yeah, good point, we’ll just die out here while we’re waiting for class to end.”

Hilda laughed, “I’ll text ‘em, don’t worry. And.” She leapt over and hugged Marianne, “Good luck!”

Marianne was a little stiff. Hilda desperately wished that she could take all her stress away. The dragon roared, and several wires snapped.

“Hurry!” Claude had stolen several bricks from the park, and handed a few to Hilda. He deftly leapt atop a single wire and balanced like a trained acrobat. Hilda stood on two at once, and still almost fell over.

“Our plan is to hit it with bricks?”

“Yup!”

Hilda laughed. A little darkly. While balancing and holding bricks in one hand, she got out her phone and texted Lysithea. 

“hy bb were in trubble come save us plz”

“weer at the prk with the bug hiorse statyue”

No immediate response. Marianne was probably right.

Claude launched a brick, it made a ringing noise off the dragon’s armour. The dragon stood up, which jostled the wires they were running on. Hilda screamed, then dropped both her phone and the bricks. She hung on the bottom of the wire for dear life.

“Great plan, Claude!”

He shrugged and threw another brick. Below them, Marianne was walking carefully through the web of wires and broken cars. Even amid the chaos, she looked serene and so beautiful. Her dress flowed around her like rippling water. Because of her powers, she rarely needed to actually get up close. The dragon didn’t seem to notice her. It was clawing at Claude, but it couldn’t snap his wires and attack him simultaneously. Hilda reasoned that they could probably handle it, and dropped from her wire to search for her phone.

Cars were strewn about, mostly wrecked, and the wires made it even harder to search. She spotted some bricks lodged in a car’s windshield. On closer inspection, they were a different colour than the ones she dropped. What a pain. The paint still wasn’t coming off easily. It had dried quickly, but it was still elastic. Some form of especially adhesive acrylic paint. Even worse, her sports bra and shorts would need to be washed several times to get it all out. Just underneath a car, she snatched her pink, bejeweled case. Due to her hero work, her brother had insisted that she get an extremely tough phone case.

Lysithea hadn’t responded, so she tried texting Lorenz,

“We’re fighting a dragon in the horse statue park and *definitely* need some help. Also could you get Lysithea to come with? She’s not texting me back! D:”

Right behind Hilda, she heard a hundred snaps at once, and Marianne’s scream. Just as she turned around, Marianne was catapulted directly into a nearby car. The crunch alone was bone-chilling. The car had been crumpled in half, and Marianne laid perfectly in the center. What a horrible coincidence. Marianne’s dress was ripped, and her leg was covered in long white scars.

“Marianne! Are you okay?!”

“Just shaken up. The dragon didn’t want to talk.”

Hilda grimaced, “What about your leg? Are those recent?”

Marianne glanced down and immediately cringed. She whispered, “I don’t want to talk about it.” She tried to adjust her dress to cover her legs.

“Don’t be ashamed, nearly everyone in our line of work has hundreds of scars just like you. It’s a mark of pride!” 

“I suppose not everyone has flawless skin like yours.” Marianne reached out a hand to touch Hilda’s paint-covered knee.

“Aw, thanks… Although you can’t really see it right now. Don’t worry, I’ll give you a good view later!” She pumped her fist, “That came out a little wrong, I just meant I’ll wash it off.”

Marianne giggled.

She offered a hand, “But are you one hundred percent sure that you’re fine? It threw you clear across the square!”

“And it’s so angry.” Marianne closed her eyes and stood up, “Hilda, you should go get help.”

“No need! I already texted Lorenz and Lysithea.”

The dragon roared, and a tremendous windstorm whirled around the square. It was completely free of wires in a second. Claude jogged up with a thin smile on his face.

“Well, I’m out of wire. Time to run away?”

Hilda pounded her fists together, “No. I think it’s time for my plan.”


	2. Flashback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The golden deer house is setting up decorations to invite newcomers into their club.

The Golden Deer house’s superhero club consisted of exactly eight members. Claude, the self-proclaimed leader, was balancing perfectly on a very tall ladder. Ostensibly, he was supposed to be putting decorations on the wall.

“And see, Lorenz? I can also do a backflip up here.”

“Don’t you dare!” Lorenz was holding the ladder with a white-knuckle grip.

On the room’s tables, Ignatz, an art student, and Raphael, a sports scholarship recipient, were working on a large banner. From where Hilda was sitting, it looked like a banana with several meticulously-detailed brown spikes on one side. Hilda turned to Lysithea, who was proofreading Claude’s speech,

“Why don’t you just teleport them all up? It’d be way faster than letting Claude swan about.”

“Are you kidding me?” Lysithea scowled at her, “For something this petty, I can’t waste my tiny amounts of vitality. It doesn’t take much for me to fall apart. You don’t make your jewelry out of your own skin, do you?”

“I… see what you mean. Sorry.”

Lysithea huffed a little and broke eye contact, but she didn’t look quite as mad. That was a win with her.

“But, seriously, if anyone but Claude was up there.”

She scoffed, “No, it’s because of his insipid rivalry with Lorenz. They’re like peacocks, they have to show off to each other.”

“Yeah!” Hilda laughed, “Maybe we can get Marianne to talk some sense into them.”

“Huh? I don’t believe she’s confident enough to be a skilled negotiator.”

“You were comparing them to animals.”

Lysithea opened her mouth, then closed it, “Ah! Right, you’re referencing her ability. Clever. Are you going to do any actual work, or just sit there looking pretty?”

Hilda smiled, “Aw, you think I’m pretty?”

“What?! Ugh, nevermind.” Lysithea blushed a little. Such an easy way to avoid responsibility. Over in the corner, Leonie was lying down while Marianne rubbed her back. She had sprained it while attempting to lift all of their supplies up from the basement at once. Something about ‘getting all of her cardio at once’. It was lucky that Marianne just happened to have a healing ability, or else Leonie might have to wait for her body to heal naturally. And she couldn’t have that, obviously. Nothing but constant physical exertion for Leonie Pinelli.

It was especially galling that she didn’t seem to like the attention from Marianne. After all, her massages were excellent. Marianne was always so delicate it felt like the touch of an angel. And here Leonie was, demanding that she massage harder.

“Marianne, please, it feels like you’re barely touching me.”

“Oh, I can heal you without getting too close, don’t worry.”

Hilda dropped down to their level, “Hey, how about you let me massage you? That way you don’t have to bug Marianne.”

“That’s a great idea! You’re actually surprisingly good, Hilda.” Leonie smiled, but it didn’t look sincere. Hilda began roughly pounding her spine into shape. “Ah, just like that.”

“Well, what’s surprising about me being good? Can’t I massage people, too?”

“No, I just meant that you’re very delicate, even - ah - with you know, being made out of rock.” Leonie sighed loudly, “Sorry if I was being demanding, Marianne.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble.”

Hilda took her attention off Leonie, and looked sideways at Marianne. Their faces were just inches apart, just above Leonie’s back. Her intricately-braided hair was even more impressive up close. Hilda whispered,

“Hey.”

Marianne turned and smiled. Hilda winked,

“Come here often?”

“Oh, of course. Leonie has no shortage of broken bones.”

Marianne tapped her forehead against Hilda’s, and winced a little, “The necklace you made me was incredible. Are all necklaces supposed to fit that well?”

“Oh yeah, you just have to balance them correctly-” Hilda got a whiff of something spicy, and her body immediately barricaded her nostrils with solid rock. Then she blacked out for a second, and woke up to Leonie shouting in pain. Marianne muttered apologies and dragged her out of the room with ease. It felt nice being carried for once. 

“Nurse’s office is on the first floor, would the elevator or stairs be faster?” She mumbled something to herself and opened the stairwell. Hilda was fully awake and following at a reasonable speed, she was merely confused.

“Hey, Marianne, why’re we heading to the nurse’s office? What happened?”

Marianne coughed a little excessively, “I… Poisoned you.”

“Aw, if you want to kill me you gotta try a little harder. The whole Goneril family is pretty immune to poison,” Hilda pounded her chest, “Thanks to being mostly rock and all.”

“Don’t joke about that. If I killed you I’d never forgive myself.”

Hilda shook off Marianne’s hands, then embraced her. “Don’t worry. Don’t worry about that. I promise you right now that I’ll never die. Not ever!”

“You’ll die someday.”

“Nope. Not me! Not even old age can keep me in the ground.” Hilda tapped her forearm, “See, if I die, you can just break off a chunk of me and plant it. Then another Hilda will grow there.”

“That can’t be true.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

“I met your parents, and they weren’t Hildas.”

“That’s just a cover story. My brother is also a fake, all his fights are staged.”

Marianne giggled, and Hilda’s heart leapt just a little, “Okay, I believe you.” She gave a picture-perfect smile. It’d be so easy to just lean into her, kiss her cheeks, rub her face… But Hilda’s head was eighty-eight pounds of solid stone. Unless Marianne turned out to be some incredibly durable super monster, they’d probably never get to kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my gosh i was going to do foreshadowing but i forgot. it totally slipped my mind. the entire point of this scene was to foreshadow something and i forgot to do it. ahg
> 
> uh well imagine i put something in like "wow hilda you better not drop that on yourself or you might shatter your fragile, crystalline skin" thanks so much
> 
> there's plenty of other "foreshadowing" so i'm not that bothered but also agh


	3. More Dragon!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hilda continues her desperate fight against the dragon.

“Since when did you have a plan?!”

“Just now!” Hilda smiled. “I’m going to punch it, really, really hard.”

“Are you telling me that it won’t shatter you? And that you’ve been lying about your capabilities for months?” Claude looked like he just found a winning lottery ticket.

“What’s with that smug expression?!” Hilda could feel herself getting redder and she hated it, “It’s not that big of a deal!”

“Doesn’t that mean we could totally wash you off with a hose?”

“No! Anymore out of you and that dragon won’t be the first thing I hit!”

Claude held up his hands, but remained as smug as possible, “Okay! Does our illustrious leader have any roles for Marianne and I?”

“Uh.” Hilda, “Not yet!”

“Then I’ll try to distract it, and Marianne can call for help.” He shrugged, “Sorry for saddling you with the boring job.”

The dragon smashed the pavement beside them, and the road rocked. Several cars were launched into the air. Marianne was knocked off her feet. Claude laughed and jumped atop his wires. Hilda lunged over and shielded Marianne with her body. A car slammed into her back, but she held strong as it rolled off to the side. The light behind Hilda illuminated Marianne in a soft, dusky glow.

“Go. I can handle this.” Hilda pulled her up, then turned to face the dragon.

It was nearly on top of them. Its razor-sharp claws, jaws the size of a car, and blade-tipped wings were all fully extended. The sunlight shone through the hole in its chest. Its tail came out of nowhere and slapped Hilda. She tumbled a few feet, but stopped her momentum. A nearby car was just light enough, and she lobbed it into the sky. It’d hopefully dent the monster a little. While it was preparing to catch the car, Hilda shoulder-charged into its back leg. It tripped onto her. Their combined weight was enough to sink a dent into the road. Hilda kept trying to get up, but the dragon just kept stomping her back down. Immensely frustrated, Hilda timed a punch with the dragon’s stomp. Her tiny fist was a pinprick compared to its bulk, and easily punctured its armour. Its innards were just as tough as the outside. Only one motor was loose enough for Hilda to rip free before she was launched into the air.

The park was still intact. Gorgeous, full flowers arranged themselves around Hilda. It was beauty like this she was trying to protect. With an enormous groan, Hilda stood up and braced herself.

Claude had tangled its hand in wires, and was sprinting away as fast as he could. It was kinda comical. The dragon snapped every wire in just one movement, then lumbered after him. Its right foot wasn’t moving. Hilda worked her way under a car, dead-lifted it into the air, then catapulted it. The dragon stumbled back. She sprinted for it. A wire weaved through its chest wound and staggered it. Hilda brought both of her fists down on its other foot, and prepared for a retaliation. Claude caught one of its arms with two more wires. It was trapped. Its huge hand dropped down onto Hilda, but she punched up again. One arm got stuck inside the machinery, and she started ripping off bits of metal with the other. It wasn’t enough to stop it from functioning. While Hilda was still attached, it used its claws to free its other arm. Then it scraped four sharp claws against her skin. Hilda laughed, the claws dulled almost instantly. Metal was beaten by diamonds yet again.

“Ha! I’m invincible, you stupid dragon! Just run away or let me break you into pieces!”

As if in response, the dragon shook its broken hand until Hilda fell out. Several of its fingers broke off. It had trouble moving its wings for a second thanks to Claude’s wires, but not any more than that. Another massive windstorm picked up. Hilda shouted,

“Are you kidding me?! Just die already!”

It crouched down, and Hilda lunged onto its broken foot. Then it leapt into the air. Hilda watched the ground leave rapidly. The city turned into tiny building blocks. The dragon tried to shake her off, but she already had a handhold, and she was only going to make more.


	4. Even more dragon!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hilda goes for a ride.

The intense wind blasted Hilda against the dragon’s leg. It made punching difficult, which was all the defense it needed. Hilda groaned, this was taking way too much work. They were headed towards Garreg Mach university, which wasn’t surprising. She pulled out her phone,

“hey lysie update: dragon is heading directly towards the school. need help now”

Still no response. Next she texted Lorenz again,

“i don’t know how you can help but uh just heads up there’s a dragon heading to the school”

Hilda didn’t have Leonie’s number, which had to be deliberate, but she could contact Ignatz and Raphael. She sent them the same message,

“tell anyone you trust that there’s a giant mechanical dragon heading right for you. also, if you could get lysiethia and tell her to get her butt out her that’d be nice tyty <3”

The dragon shook its leg to jostle Hilda off, and she nearly dropped her phone.

“Agh! Screw you!” She leaned up and pounded her fist against its leg joint. It didn’t even budge. It got a little leverage, and kicked her down. Her leg was caught in its armour. She was stuck upside-down with her foot twisted uncomfortably. It was impossible for her to get up.

“Maybe this is why Raphael encouraged me to do crunches.”

Far below them, Garreg Mach university came into view. It had a large metal spire on top that the dragon was aiming for. Over to one side, Hilda could see the window to the pool.

“Hey! I know you can hear me! I’ll give you a tip! That window over there leads directly into the power generator! If you throw me, It’ll blow up!”

The world jostled and Hilda felt really, really weird as the dragon smashed her leg directly onto the huge, metal spike. Her entire foot detached cleanly. Those sneakers were really expensive. Plummeting took a while. She crashed clean through the roof, the attic floor, then another hundred feet to the theatre floor. That gave way, too.

Hilda stood up in darkness, and nearly collapsed to the ground. With one foot missing, she was completely off-balance. She stumbled through the wreckage until she found a pull-cord. The flickering lights illuminated a dingy passageway she had never seen before. Probably a corridor for janitors to move discretely. It smelled like oil and paint.

It took a while, but she found a stairwell leading upwards. While searching for stairs, she found a conveniently-sized metal peg and fastened it to her leg. Unfortunately, nothing else fit the pirate aesthetic. There was a cool bandana, but it was so dirty that Hilda regretted picking it up immediately.

When she thought about it, there were plenty of people in this university who could probably deal with that dragon. There was no way her skills were necessary anymore. As if on cue, her phone found service again, and she got a few text messages. Three from Lorenz, and one each from Ignatz and Claude.

Lorenz: “That’s very rude, Hilda. I’ll have you know that I have other skills besides fighting, and could serve an auxiliary role in burgeoning our morale. On top of that, my magical abilities are very suited to tangling and distracting a horrid beast such as (1/3)”

Hilda closed that tab.

Ignatz: “A dragon? Shouldn’t I alert everyone? I’m in class with Lysithea, I’ll try to pass a note.”

“Wait, are there people we shouldn’t trust? Hilda, I need more details!”

Yeah, typical. At least- bing, a text from Lysithea,

“were r u and were is it”

Hilda smiled, finally the big guns are out. She was in the theatre, which had a giant hole in the roof and floor, and a dozen people running around confused. To get the perfect shot of the ceiling hole, Hilda took a low-angle selfie. Not her most flattering angle, but she tilted her head a little to make up for it. She sent it and went back to texting.

Claude: “Hey”

Hilda: “sup” 

“just got dropped through seven stories”

“So you got your butt kicked”

“shut up”

She closed Claude’s messages even though he was still typing. Presumably while doing sick wire parkour. There was one person she hadn’t texted.

Hilda: “Hey, just want you to know that you don’t gotta bother with getting help! The dragon took me all the way to the university. Also, that’s where it is.”

“Also also, I’m totally fine, physically.”

“shoot that probably made it sound worse than it is, uh, TL;DR don’t worry!”

Marianne didn’t respond quickly in the best of times, so Hilda didn’t have to worry about her terrible lie until much later. It was usually way easier for her to lie about stuff. Something about doing that to Marianne just felt wrong. Still, something for future Hilda to worry about.

She practically jumped when a notification popped up.


	5. Dragon...

Hilda hovered over the notification for a moment. The preview said, “That’s not reassuring. I tr...” She didn’t want to open it.

The people who were examining the hole at the front of the theatre were running away. There was a distinct engine buzz, and the damaged dragon smashed through the wall, then perched on the stage. It nearly stumbled on its useless club foot. Hilda laughed and hobbled towards it,

“Ha! I’ve taken out like three of your limbs, you’ve only hit one of mine!”

The dragon shot paint at her, but it fell a little short.

“What are you even doing here?! Why are you after me?”

It opened its mouth again, and something whirred inside. Then a tinny, mechanical voice coughed out,

“To gauge your abilities.”

“My abilities? Well, I’d gauge them pretty well, yeah?”

“No. You have significant weaknesses. We shall use them on Holst.”

“What? My brother?”

Holst was a much more famous hero than Hilda, and especially because he was seemingly undefeatable. Nothing could so much as scratch his crystalline hide. Currently, he was lending his strength to defend their homeland of Goneril from Almyra, an aggressive foreign nation. Hilda narrowed her eyes and charged towards the dragon,

“I don’t believe you! Why wouldn’t you use metal dragons before if you had them?”

“This device is the first prototype.”

That could be true, but it would be really odd. Either way, Hilda needed to break this thing, now.

The wall next to her disassembled itself perfectly, each brick removed one-by-one in seconds. Lysithea floated through and sent black spikes from her hand directly into the dragon’s arm that it held up to defend. The arm disassembled itself, and several parts spiralled off as they crumbled into dust.

“You didn’t tell me it was this BIG!”

Suddenly, she stopped and fell to the ground. The bandages on her arm were bleeding.

“Don’t you have an anti-metal spell?” Hilda got between her and the dragon.

“Yeah! That was it! Usually we aren’t up against nine tons of treated metal.” Lysithea huffed loudly, “Technically, quite a few of the components shouldn’t be able to corrode at all. I sort of brute-forced certain equations, which was likely the main contributing factor to-”

The dragon jumped forwards with its one hand outstretched, and Hilda caught it.

“WHAT?!” Lysithea shouted, “Since when are you so strong?!”

“Uh.” Hilda watched its club leg fly over and kick her into the wall.

“And durable, too! Wow, now I kinda want it to kill you.” Lysithea cackled, “Do you remember when you told me that you couldn’t carry your books because you felt like you had a crack somewhere?”

“Now’s not really the time!” The dragon lunged over and used her like a piece of chalk, drawing a big mural on the wall. With her face.

“Oh of course your majesty, I’m just going to save a few pictures for my own satisfaction. Ooh, that’s a good one! You still haven’t taken off her wig, though, they make those out of bulletproof fibres.”

The dragon pulled at her hair and Hilda nearly punched her way free. “Low blow, Lysithea! You know this thing can hear you, right?!” One of the fingers dented enough for her to pull it off. The rest of its fingers tore her wig off.

“What? Can it talk?”

“Yeah! It told me that it was sent by the Almyran-” It smashed her face into the wall just as she said that. Definitely intelligent. Something behind her was buzzing loudly. The dragon dropped her, and she scrambled to her feet. Thousands of tiny black particles were nibbling at its joints and exposed parts.

“Nice!”

“It’s not doing anything! That thing doesn’t have any exposed wiring!”

“What?! I tore like fifty holes into it!”

It lumbered towards Lysithea. Her eyes were wide with bloody tears, and she was shaking. There weren’t many times when she actually looked like a child. Hilda stomped on its tail hard. She heard a crack. Then she clambered up its back spines and jumped onto its head.

“Get away from her! You’re after me, right?”

It shook like a dog, and Hilda flew off. She grappled onto its back again. Still, she felt a little sluggish. There was a well-kept family secret that they had much less endurance than a regular human. That’s one of the many reasons Hilda napped all day. Although the main one was still that she didn’t like working. She shouted,

“Lysithea, you should probably go. If you’re already bleeding, any more will kill you.”

That notion seemed to offend her more than being dead. She stated,

“I’m not done yet.”

Dark spikes covered the ground and filled the air. The underside of her fingernails bled. The dragon covered itself with its wings and launched a torrent of paint at Lysithea, who closed her fist. All around Hilda, huge spikes sliced through its wings and cut into its armour. She covered her face and laid still as spikes plummeted all around her. The dragon bucked and knocked Hilda off. Its wings were cut into ribbons, each joint had several spikes through it, its eyes were gone, and its mouth was shut with more spikes.

Lysithea coughed, “Yeah, how was that?”

Hilda raced over to catch her before she collapsed, “Amazing. Don’t do that again.” She picked her up and turned to hobble for the infirmary. The stairs weren’t too far away. Hilda hoped that the paint was non-toxic, there was no way it wasn’t in all of her wounds. Her uneven gait also wasn’t going to help Lysithea, she felt horrible that her stone body would hurt her even more.

She rounded the corner, and watched the wall explode. She stumbled backwards and nearly fell. The dragon, blinded, wounded, stabbed a thousand times, just wouldn’t die. It leered over her, black spikes dripping off its armour like it just took a nice shower.

“What! Is your problem!”

The tinny speaker spoke through its closed mouth. The voice was distant and echoed uncomfortably.

“The fact that you’re still alive.”

Hilda turned to run. It caught her unbroken leg, and she nearly dropped Lysithea on the ground. She managed to drop Lysithea while it was dragging her back into the theatre. The dragon used her leg as a convenient handle to club her repeatedly into the ground. It was getting harder and harder to resist.

“Wait. No, that’s not your weakness. You knocked off your own foot earlier. Mind telling me how you did that?”

“Mind dropping dead?”

The dragon stared at Hilda blankly. It used its foot to kick around, and eventually Hilda’s sneaker, with her foot still inside, fell out. It was still in top condition.

“Oh, nice.”

It lowered its head to the ground and stared closely.

“I see. Rotation.” 

It opened its mouth with several sickening pops as each spike fell out and took parts of its face with them. After simply opening its maw, it looked mangled, shattered in a hundred different ways. It snatched Hilda with its jaw, and kept its other arm as leverage. Hilda kicked up through its mouth, and crushed something that felt important. It pinned her legs together with its teeth and tried again.

Hilda watched the weakened exterior wall of the theatre collapse in on itself, followed by a tremendous beast. It was easily twenty feet tall, even on all four legs. Its scales were thick, brown, and overlapping. The scales didn’t cover its black gangly legs, or its long, pink teeth. It didn’t look like it could see through its eyes.

Before Hilda blinked, it was on top of the metal dragon. It pulled her out of the dragon’s maw and catapulted her through the stage. The dragon flicked its tail up and impaled the beast’s left leg. The beast wrapped its fleshy jaws around the dragon’s face, and pulled the entire head off with one twist of its neck. The headless dragon punched the beast’s unarmored underbelly, but it didn’t seem to notice. With unbridled savagery, the beast climbed onto the dragon and began biting at each hole that Hilda created. Its tail was ripped off, then its club foot, then its chest was split open, then its single remaining hand was shattered into pieces. The robot slammed its arm into the beast’s back, and succeeded only in damaging itself. Its already delicate housing fell into two pieces with the reverberation.

Even though the dragon was down, the beast continued tearing each piece and crushing it with its teeth. Hilda literally couldn’t do anything but watch. The wood around her was a vice grip, pinning her arms in place. Presumably her phone was long shattered, too. With so many holes in the ceiling and walls, there was plenty of light drifting in. And the dragon had sanded all the paint off her face. Without even moving, Hilda was confident she could defend herself. Or at least delay the inevitable. Her body gradually heated up. Some of the remaining paint boiled off, too.

Sure enough, after nearly five minutes of smashing and eating every electronic part it could find, the beast turned towards Hilda. It approached slowly, delicately. Sizing up its meal. It didn’t have many weak spots. It was too low to the ground to hit its underbelly, its eyes were too small and heavily armoured, and she couldn’t see the spike stuck through its leg. The only way to win would be to rely on her sheer strength alone.

When the beast was almost on top of her, she raised her arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i just realized that i spent another fic just brutalizing the lead character. what is wrong with me. i'm just going to write fluff after this. nothing but fluff. you know, i'm sure petra is doing something fun and not horrible. oh she just killed a rabbit. nice. fluffy. fuck me and fuck this


	6. Slumber Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marianne gets a break, Hilda breaks even more things.

The beast leapt out of the way, and Hilda accidentally blasted a hole in the trashed theatre. Something far away caught on fire.

“Aw beans!” She whispered, then adjusted. It was fast, but Hilda fought faster creatures. 

She feinted with a small beam, then fired everything she had at the side of the stage it leapt to.

“Gotcha!”

Her body cooled quickly, and the tiny amount of light filtering in wouldn’t let her fire again for another minute, at least. The beast hadn’t been appreciably damaged. Its armour was smoking, but not injured. It approached slowly. There wasn’t any real reason to be scared, it’d be over quick, given how strong its jaw was. 

Then the beast collapsed to the ground. Its scales disappeared in a cloud of smoke, its legs retracted, its form shrank. Soon, it was very recognizably human. A human with pastel blue hair. Hilda stated, dreamily,

“Marianne.” Then she shouted, “Hey, you okay?”

Marianne practically dragged herself off the ground. She responded,

“Yes. Please tell me I didn’t hurt you.” She hid her face with one hand.

“Nah, I’m just tired. Just a couple more minutes and I can at least hobble away.” She laughed uncomfortably, “But Lysithea isn’t fine. She’s at the back of the theatre, and was bleeding pretty bad.”

That was just a little lie, Hilda needed a lot more than a couple of minutes. Marianne was still sizing her up, and every time she spotted another crack, she tensed just a little. She took a bit longer than necessary to turn around.

“Please wait for me, Hilda.”

“Yeah! I’m not moving anywhere.” Marianne walked deliberately around the rubble. Even with her long skirt, she moved with practiced grace. Like an angel, or maybe just its halo. In the endless light of Marianne’s presence, Hilda fell asleep.

\--

The ground around her creaked, and Hilda opened her eyes with a start. She was still wedged solidly into the stage, but someone had put orange caution cones around her. The stars were visible through the hole in the wall. One good thing about the old-style construction and lack of exterior lights was the almost non-existent light pollution. Over on the side of the stage was a pair of sleeping bags. There was a tuft of pastel-blue hair sticking out of one.

Hilda tried to stand up in one smooth motion. She shoved her arms into the stage, and immediately through them in one resounding crack.

“Dang. Oh shoot.” She was still a little sore, the smoothed parts of her face stung, and she didn’t know where her wig was. Her head looked so much worse with those silly clear crystals sticking out of it. Holst wore a tiara around his to make it look like a crown, but Hilda didn’t even want to rule her own room, let alone a city.

She stepped one foot out and tripped on her own face with another huge crash. It was like a one-person wrecking crew over here. No one had re-attached her foot, and her peg was definitely lost forever. She groaned loudly.

“Keep it down over there.” Lysithea mumbled sharply. “Wait.”

The second sleeping bag opened, and Lysithea practically tumbled over Marianne to get out. She was wearing black pajamas and a lot of bandages. Hilda waved. Lysithea covered her face and ran over. By the time she was next to Hilda, there were tears in her eyes. Hilda held her arms out and hugged her gently. She coughed out,

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it when I said that I wanted it to kill you!”

“Aw, I knew that! But thank you.” Hilda rocked her a little bit, “Sorry that you had to wait so long. How long was my nap?”

Lysithea adjusted herself and sat properly on Hilda’s lap. She was still crying and wiping away the tears with her sleeves.

“It was eight hours by the time we went to bed, and I don’t have my phone on me, so I can’t tell you the exact time.”

Hilda smiled, “Ooh, mine might still work.” She eased the shattered case out of her pocket. The pocket’s threading shredded in her hands. The phone went on top of Lysithea’s lap so they could both see it.

“Six am!”

“Six forty-five and two seconds. You’ve been asleep for fifteen hours, fifty-one minutes and forty-three seconds.”

“Aw, I didn’t hit my previous record.” Hilda shook her fist.

“What, you mean record for not sleeping?” Lysithea stooped sniffling to look smug, which wasn’t much of an improvement, “Ooh, I stayed awake for a full fourth of a day.”

“I wish! You know, cats have it figured out. They get us to do most of their work, sit on their butts all day, it’s a great grift.”

Lysithea pouted, “They’re too cute, they wouldn’t manipulate us.”

“Oh yeah?” She lifted her own chin with a hand, “Well I’m cute too, and I love manipulating people!”

“Ugh! No you aren’t!” Hilda laughed.

“Should we just wait here until Marianne wakes up? I’m honestly surprised that you’re up before her.”

“Oh, she forced me to sleep when I was in the nurse’s office. When I woke up, she was planning to camp out next to you, and I joined.”

Hilda hid her smile, “I still can’t believe you did that, thanks so much for keeping me company.”

“Yeah, you better be thankful.” Lyithea wasn’t looking at her.

“‘Cause I’m definitely not thankful that you told the dragon to rip my hair off.” Hilda spat kindly.

“Well, I’m definitely not glad that you brought an indestructible dragon to the school, then apparently finished it off yourself! What’d you even need me for!”

“I didn’t…“ Hilda looked at Marianne for a second. She hadn’t told her to keep it a secret, but it didn’t seem like the kind of thing to tell just anyone. On the other hand, Lysithea wasn’t ‘just anyone’. Hilda groaned, “Sorry. It even left my sneakers intact, so I got out way easier than most.”

“Sneaker?” Lysithea leaned down, “Oh, you lost a foot. It looks like a clean cut. How’d it do that?”

“I’m not entirely sure. It kept shouting about ‘rotation’, but that’s not normally a weakness of rocks, right?”

“You aren’t exactly a normal rock.” Lysithea knocked on her shoulder. “Anyway, uh, do you want something to eat? I know how to pick the cafeteria’s locks.”

“Ooh, can you get me two or three of their chicken sandwiches? Those are the best.”

“Sure.”

Lysithea leapt off Hilda’s lap.

“One last thing. Lysithea, I totally would not have survived without you. Thanks so much for all of your help.”

“Yeah! I know.” She smiled.

Smug, but that was to be expected. Hilda always felt better when she legitimately thanked someone. After all, if you thank someone for something you manipulated them into doing, that was just more manipulation.

Hilda stepped over to Marianne’s side of the stage. She was sleeping so peacefully, even on the thin hospital pillows. It must’ve been hard getting to sleep. She slept so light, and so little, it’d be physically painful to wake her. But she’d done that for her, and Hilda felt her own tears coming on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i suppose the other prompt, confession, also works here, but it's really themed more around crying, that's for sure.


	7. Slumber party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mhmm soft, and crime

“Nice!” Hilda put her hands together to receive a tray full of food, “Ooh, did you get me a milkshake, too?”

“No, that’s mine! I just couldn’t carry it all in my arms.” She narrowed her eyes, “I sacrificed a measure of stealth. If we get arrested, it was your fault, okay?”

“Definitely not! I didn’t even steal anything!”

Hilda felt a hand clap onto her knee. Marianne stated,

“You’re still missing a foot.” Then crawled a few inches out of her sleeping bag, “And did you mention stealing something? Why would you be afraid of getting arrested?”

“Hey, do you want some twizzlers, Marianne?” Lysithea smiled insincerely.

“Thank you, but I’m fine.” She shook herself awake, “I suppose if you’re both up to no good, you must be physically healthy. Please come over here.” She held out her hands.

“Ugh, fine.”

Hilda obediently sat in front of Marianne, and took her hand like she was being knighted. Lysithea grunted when Marianne put a hand on top of her head. A warm feeling spread through Hilda, just like when she was full of sunlight. Her various cracks and sores eased their pain. Marianne frowned.

“Neither of you are at full health. I recommend as much sleep and healthy food,” Marianne gave Lysithea a look, “As you can muster.”

“Hp’s only half-full, huh? Well, being around you is like a plus-ten boost!”

Marianne smiled, Lysithea stuck her tongue out.

“Don’t reward her for such a cheesy pickup line! Besides, in any video game where regular hit point values are over one thousand, that’d be less than a one percent increase.”

“Oh yeah? Well, my hit points are really low in real life, so it’s big for me.”

Lysithea’s eyes went wide, “If your hit points are low, than what does that make mine?! Are you going to give Marianne like, two hit points?!”

“You’ve got negative three hit points.” Hilda shoved Lysithea onto her back. “Bam!”

“Agh.”

Hilda leaned into Marianne. They hadn’t stopped holding hands. She whispered, “I didn’t tell Lysithea about your transformation, is that okay? She thought I broke the robot.”

“Thank you so much. I’m sorry that you had to see that.”

Hilda took both of her hands, “No! You were so cool! I loved your hot-pink teeth, they were really stylish.”

“Pink?” Marianne frowned and opened her mouth, “They aren’t usually pink, right?”

Hilda smirked, “Oh, well, let me take a closer look.”

Marianne’s teeth weren’t pink, that’s for sure. But Hilda took the opportunity to hold her hand, lean as close as she dared, and put a hand on Marianne’s cheek. She was soft. Her eyes had deep, dark bags under them, but there was a bright fire behind them. Her nose was cute and had a long bridge. It was a face she’d seen a thousand times, and hoped to see a thousand times more.

“You know, even like this, I’m very tough.” Marianne took her hand and squeezed tightly. Hilda gasped, she could feel it even through her rocky shell.

“You’re saying…” Hilda’s breath caught in her throat, “Could I kiss you?”

Marianne leaned their foreheads together. Then she turned slightly, and kissed Hilda. They pressed into each other in a tight embrace. Hilda pulled away to laugh, but Marianne followed her out and they kept going.

“What the fuck!”

Hilda giggled, “Oh, I totally forgot you were there.” They were laying sprawled on the stage, Marianne on top. Marianne was also hiding her face from Lysithea and trying not to laugh.

“Ugh, at least warn me beforehand! I have a lot of candy to eat.”

“Thanks for the food!”

“Yeah.” Lysithea stuffed her pockets with snacks and hurried away. “You still look ridiculous without your wig, by the way.”

“Says the person shoving candy into her pajamas!” Lysithea stuck her tongue out.

Hilda pulled Marianne back into her lap.

“Sorry about that rude interruption. Emphasis on the rude.”

“Mhmm. I’m still tired.”

“Ooh, and Lysithea left her sleeping bag. Let’s have a sleep over!”

Marianne nodded, “But we should also move off the stage. They’ll want to repair it first thing in the morning. We caused a lot of structural damage.”

“Yeah. Don’t wanna be the first ones to blame, yeah? Maybe I can lie and say that Lysithea did most of the wrecking?”

Marianne glared at her.

“Aw, if you insist.”

They separated slowly, reluctantly, and not without a few kisses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see, i wasn't lying about doing nothing but fluff. 
> 
> i also love that lysithea's name is the only one that shows up in ao3's automatic wordchecking system. yeah, why was she here in the first place? i hope randomly including her in every 3houses fic i write doesn't become my new thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave likes, commenters, or subscribbles!


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